The Moroccan National Tourist Office is courting UK operators to try and get the beach resort of Tangier back into summer sun brochures, a decade after it dropped off the holiday-resort map.
In the mid-1980s, the resort annually attracted more than 100,000 British visitors on charter flights with mass-market operators such as Thomson and Inspirations.
MNTO director UK and Ireland Ali El Kasmi said: “Ten years ago, Britain was the biggest market to Tangier – around 80% of British tourists going to Morocco went to the destination.
“Now there is so much happening there, we are optimistic about its future. New hotels are opening, the local authorities have set up special teams to clean the beach and the port, a project to upgrade the airport has started, and we now have tourist police in place.”
He added: “Panorama is going out to see the resort this month and in the next few months, we plan to take a group of Airtours’ managers to Tangier too.”
Recent hotel developments include a new 240-room, five-star Movenpick hotel, due to open at the end of this year; the refurbishment of the five-star El Minzeh hotel by Spanish group Occidental Hotels, with the addition of a fitness centre this summer; and new management for the three-star Les Almohades hotel, now run by French group Accor.
“The interest shown by international hotel groups is very encouraging for us,” said El Kasmi.
General manager of Movenpick Hotels and Resorts in Morocco, Thomas Nikielewski, believes Tangier’s time will come again.
“We feel Tangier will have a renaissance in the next two years, which will put it back on the map for both tourism and business. There’s a new duty-free zone near the airport, a new port under construction and international companies, such as Marks and Spencer, are moving their factories to Tangier. The city is ideally placed – it is the door to Africa for European companies.”
However, tour operators feel the resort is not yet ready for the UK visitor. Panorama is keeping a watchful eye on the city’s progress, but does not currently feature it, while Cadogan Holidays has cut back its programme from four hotels last year to just one for this year.
Cadogan Holidays managing director Gary David said: “In the mid-1990s, Inspirations sold £99 packages to Tangier. It meant the city was overrun with lager louts and the hotels weren’t making enough money to reinvest, so they got run down. There was also high unemployment, so tourists got hassled. Tangier had a bad image.”
He added: “We’d like to see Tangier succeed. But we need a core base of eight or nine good hotels, and that is still a couple of years away. At the moment we feature just one hotel, the five-star El Minzeh.”
Five things you didn’t know about tangier
n From Tangier, you can see the lights from the Spanish coast which is only seven miles away across the Strait of Gibraltar. At Tangier the Atlantic Ocean meets the Mediterranean.
n In the 1950s and 1960s, Tangier attracted several American novelists, notably Paul Bowles, William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac.
n Guests over the ages at the famous 1930s-built El Minzeh hotel include Mick Jagger, Errol Flynn and Cecil Beaton.
n Tangier beach was a popular holiday destination for the Victorians who used to take afternoon rides along the sands.
n The city’s Medina (or old town) was founded in the 15th century by Muslim refugees from Andalucia in Spain.